


Beta Testing

by rednight16



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 00:29:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13283100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rednight16/pseuds/rednight16
Summary: A quiet moment late at night on the Castle allows Shiro and Pidge time to begin exploring their new relationship.





	Beta Testing

Shiro looked up at a knock on his door, pausing in the middle of a sit-up. It was relatively late, or at least that’s what it felt like after a long day of training. He still had trouble telling how much time had truly passed during the day, although he was trying to learn how to read Altean just enough so that he could keep some sort of clock around. His attempts at asking Coran or the Princess never helped, as they had no clue how to convert Earth time to Altean time. Which meant that most nights his body still thought he needed to be awake, or his mind was racing too fast for him sleep, and he ended up here in his room working out quietly so he didn’t disturb the others by walking around outside. 

Shiro pushed himself to his feet and headed towards the door, hitting the button to open it with a soft hiss. “Pidge?”

She was fidgeting in front of the door, jumping a bit in surprise when he spoke. She must not have heard the door open. “Hey, Shiro. Do you have a few minutes? I wanted to look at your arm like we talked about.”

Shiro looked down at the pile of equipment she was cradling awkwardly and gave her a bemused look. “A few minutes or a few hours?” 

She grinned sheepishly. “Probably more like a few hours. I don’t know much about Altean or Galra tech, so I’m doing a lot of learning as I go.”

Shiro just shook his head, though he was smiling. Once Pidge was on a roll it was hard to stop her until her work was completely done. Usually only food or sleep worked, and even then it was a struggle sometimes. 

“You wanna come in or did you need me somewhere else?”

Pidge peeked in the room, assessing for a moment. “I could do it here if you’re okay with that.”

Shiro nodded, stepping aside and motioning her in. “This is fine. You need help with anything?”

She shook her head before pausing. “D’you think we could move the desk closer to the bed?”

Shiro nodded, grabbing the desk and scooting it closer to the bed while wincing at the screeching of the desk at being scooted over the floor. Pidge made a face as well, waiting until he was done before plopping her stuff down and grabbing the chair. “Thanks. Go sit down while I get set up.”

Shiro smiled, reaching over to muss her hair gently before sitting down on the bed. “I’m impressed you’ve gotten your laptop to work with the Castle’s tech that fast.”

Pidge shrugged nonchalantly, smirking a bit. “It wasn’t too hard. Run a few programs here, tweak a few things there.”

Shiro laughed softly. “You say that like anyone could do it. I’d never be able to make heads or tails of any of that. I still can’t figure out their clocks.”

She snorted. “I don’t even wanna know what time it is. We’re probably all screwed up right now and it’s like 4 am but we think it’s midnight or something.”

“Yeah, probably.” 

They both went quiet as Pidge focused on her screen, and while Shiro could watch, he still had no idea what she was even looking at. It looked like a strange combination of English, Altean, and numbers that were making his head spin just looking at it all. He never did do well in programming classes in high school. Chin resting in his hand, he waited until Pidge turned back towards him. 

“Okay, arm up on the desk please.”

Shiro nodded, lifting his arm and resting it on the desk. Pidge slid her chair closer to the bed so she could get a better angle, her eyes already scanning over the metal surface for any type of panel or piece that could lift away in order for her to access the inside. His eyes followed her hand as she pushed her glasses further up her nose before reaching out, brushing the metal with the tips of her fingers. The touch was so light he almost couldn’t feel it, and he felt goosebumps rising on the rest of his body. Any touch to his prosthetic never felt the same as it had on his human arm, the sensors within the metal just not registering the same way skin did. But he remembered what it was supposed to feel like, and it was enough that he could imagine the feel of her fingers brushing along his arm.

“ — iro? Shiro?”

He jolted a bit when he finally heard his name, looking up and flushing when he saw Pidge eyeing him in confusion. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m — ” Staring at your hands in a somewhat creepy way. “I’m okay.”

Pidge watched him for another moment, amusement playing across her features. “All right, if you’re sure. Just let me know if something hurts or feels weird, since we’re going in a bit blind.”

He nodded jerkily, heat pouring off of his face. “Yep. Will do.” 

Daydreaming was nothing new at this point, but he’d never gotten so lost in thought that he didn’t even hear his own name being called. Shiro sat up a little straighter, shaking himself off.  _ Pay attention, Takashi. _

Pidge bent back over his arm to get to work, finally finding the little panel on the outside of his arm and popping it open with a triumphant noise. Shiro couldn’t help the fond smile that pulled at his mouth, doing his best to hide the still present flush on his face.

“So thankfully the Galra aren’t so advanced that their robotics are completely beyond Earth standard, but this is still unbelievable.” Pidge had that look on her face that she got when she was really excited, her eyes wide and bright while she smiled broadly, unguarded. 

Shiro had seen her with that look a few times while they were exploring the Castle, but having it directed at a part of him was different. But it was a nice different. Since arriving on the Castle, however many days or weeks ago it had been, he’d only seen his arm as something the Galra had ripped away from him. A piece of himself that had been taken away and replaced with something unnatural, something foreign. But now, watching Pidge babble on about advancing Earth prosthetics and how much the tech would help others when they got home? He couldn’t say he minded it as much. 

It took a moment before he realized there was a hand waving in front of his face. “Shiro? You alive in there?”

Shiro blinked, a knot of embarrassment forming in his stomach as he scratched at the back of his neck nervously. “Sorry, sorry, I’m okay.”

Pidge leaned back, worrying at her lower lip as she hesitated. “Do… we need to talk about yesterday?”

Shiro was pretty sure his entire face was bright red at this point. “I mean, everything was pretty straightforward, right? You asked me out and I said yes.”

Pidge nodded, her own cheeks starting to turn pink as she adjusted her glasses again. “Yeah, you did. So you know you don’t have to hide anything, right? It’s just the two of us. I know we haven’t exactly gotten much time to ourselves in a while with everything going on, and I’m supposed to be working on your arm but still… it’s alone time, right? So we can talk about how this is gonna work if something’s bothering you. We didn’t really talk about it much yesterday either.”

“I know. I just don’t want to push you into anything.” Shiro fiddled with the blanket, his fingers worrying the edge.

She made a face, poking his shoulder. “Shiro,  _ I _ asked  _ you _ out. I really don’t think you need to be worried about pushing.”

He winced playfully, holding his shoulder. “Owww,  _ Pidge _ .”

She rolled her eyes, a small grin appearing on her face. “That didn’t hurt, you big baby.”

Shiro smiled, still gripping his arm. “How do you know? Maybe you’re stronger than you think. Or you’ve secretly been working out.”

Pidge snorted. “When? Between training all day and then eating way too much food goo and working on the Castle and my own programming — ”

Shiro laughed, waving his hand. “Okay, okay, not working out. Guess this means I can’t convince you to start, can I?”

She considered him for a moment, very deliberately staring at his chest and arms. “You gonna make me run?”

“Probably, yeah. Running’s good for you.” He blushed a little at the ogling, though it was a nice ego boost. 

“…Maybe. With enough incentive.”

“Alone time with your new boyfriend isn’t enough incentive?”

“To make me run? No way, you gotta do better than that. That’s exercise, not hanging out.” She grinned, though her cheeks flushed again.

“Hm…” He sat back in his chair, thinking while trying to ignore his own heated cheeks. It was one thing knowing they were dating now, but calling himself her boyfriend  _ out loud _ was a bit more. He forced the thought back before his ears started burning. “If you run I won’t complain about you staying up too late on your laptop.”

She considered it for a moment. “Maaaaybe. That would be nice though, you get all disappointed when you find me and it makes me feel bad.”

Shiro laughed softly. “You realize that it’s only on the days you run that I won’t complain, right? I’ll still come find you otherwise.”

Pidge groaned. “Aww, and here I thought I was getting a really good deal.”

“You do have to sleep sometimes. It’s not good for you to stay up so often.” He frowned a little. He always found her in the weirdest places when she fell asleep outside of her own room, and none of them looked comfortable.

“Speak for yourself, we both know Keith sneaks into the training room all the time after lights out.” She grinned. “And I know you’re up late all the time too.”

Shiro sighed. “I’m not up because I want to be.”

Pidge’s smile faded, and she squeezed his hand gently. “I know. I can hear you sometimes when you’re pacing in the hallway.” She met his eyes fully, her own full of sincerity and conviction. “You know you can talk to us, right? You’re not gonna scare us off, and we want to help.”

Shiro hesitated for a moment, unable to pull his eyes away. “Yeah, I know. I just don’t want to burden you guys with stuff that isn’t even about you.”

“We’re a team, Shiro. It’s not fair if you take on all of our baggage and we don’t take any of yours.” She glanced down at their clasped hands. “Especially the two of us. My parents always said relationships are about balance and equality and other stuff too, but that other stuff isn’t important right now. We’re equals, so let me be there for you. You’ve already done so much for me, with Matt and my dad, because you know it bothers me. I can do that for you too.”

He smiled, unable to help himself. “How did no one else win you over first?”

Pidge shrugged, smiling back. “Well, the whole pretending to be a guy thing kinda limited my dating pool to absolutely no one for a while. Wasn’t really interested anyway.” She reached out and tugged on his bangs gently. “I think a better question is how did  _ you _ not have someone before you left?”

Shiro shrugged. “Couldn’t really find anyone that fit. The Garrison built me up to be this amazing pilot and that’s all people seemed to know. They didn’t really want to look past that, or if they did they were too shy to say anything, I guess.”

Pidge shrugged. “I’m not gonna complain too much about that.” She finally reached for the cable that connected her laptop to Shiro’s arm, plugging it in. “Means I scored a hot boyfriend.”

Shiro’s ears were definitely red now, and he hid his face in his hand. “You have no shame, do you?”

“Nope! No reason to.” She grinned, typing in the command to start running scans. “You’re cute when you blush, by the way.”

“ _ Katie _ .” His face was actually just going to melt off now.

“Takashi.”

He dropped his hand away from his face, letting out a breath. This girl was going to be the death of him. “So… was there anything you did wanna talk about? About us?”

Pidge thought about it for a moment. “Well, we kind of covered the basics already. We like each other, obviously, we went through the ‘how did you end up with me’ thing, we talked about the whole equality part, and we already knew each other before this, so it’s not like we know absolutely nothing about each other.”

Shiro started to grin. “Well, you called me cute but I didn’t get to call you cute yet.”

Pidge groaned. “Shirooo, I’m not cute.”

“You’re adorable. And pretty, and cute, and lots of other adjectives.” He reached out and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. “Your hair looks nice short. Probably easier to control too, I imagine.”

Pidge nodded, reaching up and fiddling with a piece of her hair. “Definitely. You were there for the hairbrush debacle, right?”

Shiro laughed. “Matt and I sat there for an hour trying to get that thing out. You were mortified, but we did get it out eventually.” That had been a very interesting way to spend a Tuesday night, and he couldn’t seem to forget it.

“And managed not to take a chunk of my hair with you. I was actually pretty impressed once I got over needing both of you to get the stupid thing out.” 

“Hey, it was a strong brush. Though your hair was apparently stronger.” He looked over when the computer beeped, a notice blinking on the screen. “All done?”

Pidge checked the scans. “With the first part, yes. I was checking to see if they had anything malicious in there, but it looks like you’re clean.”

Shiro smiled softly, and before he lost the nerve he leaned forward and kissed her forehead softly. “Thanks, Pidge.”

Her cheeks bloomed red and her eyes widened for a moment before she smiled, looking a little giddy. “You’re welcome. But we still have a lot more tests so we’re gonna be here a while.”

“Gives us more time to talk, right?” He smiled, settling back against the pillows and relaxing. “Then I’m all for it.”

“We’ll see if you still think that in an hour.” Pidge started up the next scan, shifting her chair so she could examine the inside of his arm. “What else did you wanna talk about?”

“Whatever you want.”  _ It doesn’t matter as long as I’m with you _ .

**Author's Note:**

> This was a piece done for the Aphelion Zine for one of my favorite Voltron ships! Hope you guys enjoy!


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